Sam Burns won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on the 13th green, which was most fitting for this unpredictable tournament as it was here that he felt he had lost it.
Some four hours earlier, Burns stood on the same green ready to remove his hat and congratulate defending champion Scotty Scheffler, who had a 4-foot birdie putt to win his semifinal match in overtime.
And then it all changed, quickly and dramatically, as it often does in match play.
Scheffler missed. Burns birdied the next hole to win. And then Burns delivered a masterclass performance with eight birdies in his last 10 holes for a 6&5 victory over Cameron Young in the final edition of match play.
“Crazy week,” said Burns.
Rory McIlroy was 2 up with three holes to play against Young in the semi-finals when a swing (into the bunker) and a bad break (into the side collar of the bunker) and a missed putt (on the 19th hole) cost him a game. left. consolation match.
Young went from the most satisfying period of his career to feeling helpless. He made some unforced errors in the championship match, but there was no stopping Burns and that silky stroke at Austin Country Club.
“I was down a million for the week,” Young said. “It’s really easy to think that you’re so close. There’s only one person standing between you and winning a tournament. But that one person, Sam Burns, is playing really well.”
Indeed, the final edition of this wild and wacky tournament ultimately turned into a downfall for everyone except Burns.
Burns fizzled out on Sunday afternoon in the championship match, finally getting enough help from Young for the second-largest margin of victory on 18 holes at the end of the match.
Young had to be content with his sixth runner-up finish in the last two seasons on the PGA Tour, disappointed but not without perspective. With concessions, he was 41-under par for the week. There was not much he could do against Burns.
Young said, “The way he played, nobody could beat him today.”
The gallery, strong and loud and well entertained during the semi-finals, thought they were going to get the top two players in the world in the final match of final match play. This turned out to be only partially true. Burns was celebrating his fifth PGA Tour title when McIlroy and Scheffler were playing. McIlroy won the consolation match 2&1.
Burns was playing the final hole against Scheffler from 3–2 down to 1 up until the world No. 1 hit the beauty of the pitch and ran down the slope to the back pin for a birdie on the 18th. Send it to the spare hole.
It was the first time in the 24-year history that both semi-final matches went to overtime.
Scheffler was 4 feet away from becoming the first player to win three straight title matches, and then he missed a short birdie on No. 13, his 20th hole.
“That’s the nature of playing a match,” said Burns. “It is one holed putt or missed putt away from winning or losing. He gave me a present on the 13 there.
Burns responded with a fairway bunker shot to 15 feet and a birdie putt to win.
He fell behind early and briefly against Young. Burns went 2 up on the seventh when Young missed a 6-foot par putt for his first bogey since the seventh on Thursday. Burns made a 20-foot birdie on the eighth and went 3 up, and he was on his way.
The ending was anticlimactic. Young pulled his shot into the water on the par-5 12th, and then he came over the green and went into the water on the par-4 13th.
Burns chipped into just inside 3 feet, and Young removed his cap without putting it.
The highlight for Young was her semifinal win over McIlroy, who was in full flight for most of the week. McIlroy was 2 up with three holes to play when Young won the 16th with a birdie and then hit a nifty pitch-and-run up the slope and his purest putt of the week.
On the first extra hole at the par-5 12th, Young was in such bad condition next to the lip in the bunker that he could only blast 169 yards, with McIlroy just 200 yards for his second. Young hammered the pitching wedge to 9 feet and made birdie. McIlroy played the green short and right, chipped to just inside 9 feet, and missed.
It was the kind of theater that graced the Austin Country Club all week, especially on Sunday morning with the prospect of a McIlroy-Sheffler title match. Instead, he got a championship match that didn’t match the way Burns was playing.
It was a flat end to 23 dynamic events of match play since the World Golf Championship began in 1999. Match play was the first, a 38-hole final won by Jeff Maggert at La Costa. He was a nail-biter. It was a defeat.
Match play will not be on the schedule in 2024 as the PGA Tour moves to the top 70 or advanced events for players, a response to the threat of Saudi-funded LIV golf.
Burns moved up to No. 10 in the world and collected $3.5 million from a $20 million purse. Young received $2.2 million for finishing second, although a trophy would seem priceless after such a close call.